... have any data on how many North Korean defectors from South Korea applied for asylum in foreign countries and how many were deported. The survey only targeted North Koreans who lived in South Korea’s second-largest city of Busan after defecting from the North. Nationwide figures were not immediately available. The police official said many of those who tried to seek asylum have failed to adjust...

...ce later this week the results of its investigation into a sex scandal involving some of the nation's diplomats and a Chinese woman, a government source said Tuesday. Multiple Korean diplomats at the...stigation today and will start internal reporting from tomorrow," an official of the Prime Minister's office told Yonhap News Agency. "The results will likely to be made public on Friday." Officials ...

South Korea's financial watchdog plans to announce its road map to resume the sale of a major stake in state-owned Woori Finance Holdings Co. by the second quarter of this year, its chief said Wednesday. The Financial Services Commission (FSC) put the 56.97 percent government stake in the second-largest banking group up for sale in November last year but suspended the sale process in December af...

Kia Motors Corp., South Korea's second-largest automaker, said Wednesday it has decided to delay the scheduled launch of its popular K5 passenger sedan in the European market until the second half of the year due to an undersupply. The vehicle, currently sold as the Optima in the U.S. market, was initially scheduled to be shipped to Europe in the first half of the year. "We earlier planned to b...

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's No. 2 maker of mobile phones, unveiled on Wednesday two new tablet computers aimed for the U.S. market, eying a bigger market share on Apple Inc.'s home turf with ultra-thin devices. Samsung unveiled the company's third tablet computer, the Galaxy Tab 8.9, and a U.S. version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 during a trade show in Orlando, Florida, it said in a statemen...

...me purchases amid growing concerns that rising household debts could emerge as a drag on the nation's economic recovery, the government said Tuesday. The plan, announced jointly by the finance, publi...ome levels. The ceiling is 40-60 percent in Seoul and the surrounding Gyeonggi Province, the nation's most populous region. In its measures unveiled last August, the government temporarily lifted the...

South Korea's Cabinet approved universal jurisdiction in a revised criminal code on Tuesday, a step that could allow Seoul to bring to justice those who commit terrorist attacks and other grave crime... the Justice Ministry said. The revision, set to go into effect as early as 2013, represents Seoul's commitment to join global efforts to combat such international crimes as terrorist attacks, which ...

Prosecutors on Tuesday raided Orion Group, the nation's major confectionery company, and its affiliates over its chairman's alleged illegal bonds transaction during the process of taking over large shares of an Orion subsidiary. Tam Chul-gon, 56, is suspected of buying bonds with warrants issued by On Media, Orion's media affiliate established in 2000 to diversify its business portfolio, at belo...

...rican nation amid bloody clashes between anti-government protesters and Gadhafi forces. Hundreds of South Koreans have since left the country. The situation in Libya has turned volatile after the U.S. and other allied forces launched air strikes Saturday under a U.N. resolution to stop leader Gadhafi’s attacks on civilians. Currently, a total of 113 South Koreans remain in Libya after five evacuated by land and sea to nearby Egypt, Tunisia and Malta on Sunday and Monday. Another South Korean nati...